Kongo

''This article is about the term Kongo and the translation issues associated to it. If you were searching for the Kongo Kin, Kongo Ryu or Zenki, please click one of the following links instead: Kongo Kin, Kongo Ryu, Zenki''



Kongo Kin, Kongo Ryu and Kongo Kaku
It is a well known issue, that Kongo (金剛) is a commonly mistranslated term from the series. Due to Semerone's further research on the topic, Zenki was able to clear this up a bit.

The common mistranslation of Kongo as golden stems from the different ways it can be translated and the rather obvious fact, that the translators likely took the Chinese Mandarin versions of the anime and the manga as a base.

When one translates Kongo from Chinese to English, it becomes golden just (金剛), referencing to an object being covered in gold or made of gold. But as with other Asian languages, it greatly depends on the context.

Though, this doesn't convey the original, Japanese meaning.

Ozunu Enno and the Buddhist terms
If the reader has seen Semerone's and Zenki's translation work regarding Tenchi Meidou, they will notice, that Ozunu Enno uses heavily Buddhism related terms when talking and the series in general often relates to things like the Vajra or Rudra. These terms are also often used together, so Rudra becomes Light/Lightning (the reference is less obvious when translating it to Thunder), especially when used alongside Vajra, it becomes something akin to holy light.

Now, the reader will return to Kongo with that knowledge. There are three common instances of this Kongo. These are the Diamond Axe (金剛斧, which transliterates as "Kongo Kin"), the Diamond Dragon (金剛竜, which transliterates as "Kongo Ryu") and Zenki's Diamond Horn (金剛角 or こんごうかく, which transliterates to "Kongo Tsuno" or "Kongo Kaku", though Zenki uses latter one, which is the commonly pronounciation).

The dubs and the subs
The reader might remember, how the anime dubs and subs commonly mistranslate these as the "Golden Axe", the "Golden Dragon", or the "Golden Horn". One might already notice, what happened there. The translators took the aforementioned, Chinese base instead of the original, Japanese one, resulting in an incorrect translation.

The Japanese word Kongo can be translated into English as either diamond or vajra (ヴァジュラ). The former is being used for the physical forms (aka things the reader can touch), while the latter is used for holy spells or special moves. (for example, Zenki's well known "Vajura" attack)

Original Author comment
I hope, this explains a few things and thanks for reading. -- Zenki on 15:50, July 24, 2017

Credits

 * All credit for the original research on this topic goes to Semerone
 * The original text featured here was written by Zenki
 * The updated non-first person version was rewritten by Goki